My 3 ½ year-old Piera and I have already started fighting—about fashion. It started a few months ago when she started asserting her opinions.
“Mommy, this doesn’t match,” she said.
The offending outfit? A pair of dusty rose-colored cotton shorts with a navy and aqua tee with thin pink stripes too subtle for her to pick up on the complementary tone. Instead she wanted to pair the pink shorts with a hot pink embroidered tank top. Ugly.
“It totally matches,” I said, trying to point out the pink stripe.
“No, it doesn’t.”
She wore the fuchsia.
What is it about toddler girls’ inane love of all things pink? Despite the fact that I banned pink gifts from my baby shower, avoided dressing her in pink as a baby, painted her room lime green and bought her brown and white safari print sheets, at 3, Piera has already declared pink “her favorite color.”
There’s also the whole ugly cartoon character problem. Don’t get me wrong – I’m all about Dora the Exlporer or princesses for that matter. I just don’t think my daughter needs cartoon-emblazoned pajamas. She disagrees.
One caveat to my anti-cartoons on clothing is that I love Hello Kitty - on everything from T-shirts to lunchboxes – this is our little compromise.
There’s also the sparkly shoe obsession. I’m fine with gold or silver leather sandals (I even have a few in my own closet) but there is no way I’m going to endorse a sequined pair of sneakers. The compromise in this case is Natives. Piera thinks water shoes are the coolest ever. Hers are red and super cute. The night they arrived she was so excited to wear them she even took a bath with them on. They’re perfect for back-to-school clothing when it’s still warm and go great with her flowered skorts and sweet graphic tees.
At least I think so. While Piera and I continue our sartorial debates, she’s now turned her focus to another area—my wardrobe.
“Mommy, I love your tutu,” she told me, referring to a black pleated silk skirt I wore with a pair of old beat-up mocassins. “But your shoes are ugly.”
